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NAVAL ArPROPRIATION BILL. 

Cu!);i and Spiuii— War and Peace. 



SPEECH 

Ol' 

HON. IIAllKY 8KINNEE, 

OF NORTH CAROLINA, 

In the UorsE OF Kepresentatives, 

Tluirsdcuj, March f4, ISDS. 
Tlio House being jn Committeo of the Whole on the State of the Unjon. and 
having under consideration the bill (H. R. OJTS; making appropriations for the 
naval service for the fiscal year L'^asyJ— 

Mr. MEYER of Louisiana. Mr. Chairman, I now yield to the 
gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Skinner]. 

Mr. 8KINNER. Mr. Chairman, the provision for our Navy in 
this crisis of our history is of international importance and of uni- 
versal interest, as it carries with it, as it should, extraordinary 
provisions and authority. 

Standing as we do on an istlmius connecting the dead and un- 
born—the fathers of our liberty who fiave gone before us and the 
sons that are to come after us, in joy or sorrow — we should in 
this serious crisis pause and dedicate our hearts to our country, 
to humanity, and to liberty, and our minds to sacred, sober con- 
templations on our duty to ourselves, to the human family, and to 
that Being who stood by our fathers in the great day of their 
fiery trial and by wliom we ^vill be held accountable for the man- 
ner in which we shall direct and deliver the responsible trust 
■which in His inscrutable wisdom has been imposed upon us. 

Mr. Chairman, the brow of civilization at this hour of the 
if world's history seems to be wrinkled with the frowns of war. 

) Not an instant of time within four centuries can be recalled when 

^ the rumors of war so simultaneously and universally reverber- 

ated. 

No great war in actual progress, but preparations for war every- 
where. Japan has voted in preparation for war her yens. Russia 
her rubles, England her pounds sterling, the United States her 
dollars, and Spain has hawked her depreciated credit on every 
market to obtain the means and sinews of war. 

There is war in Cuba, and we should have made this declaration 
of truth to the world long ago and had the powers of the earth to 
know and feel with absolute certainty that this country by in- 
spiration, inheritance, and obligation is the ally, guardian, and 
protector of suffering humanity and liberty, certainly on tliis con- 
tinent. There is preparation for war between thiscountry and 
Spain. All Europe is growling at each other over a division of 
the Chinese spoils. .Japan is rushing her military forces to her 
Pacific coast. England is fighting Mahdi in Central Africa and 
her rebelling tribes in North India. In South America Argen- 
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. tina is preparing for a conflict witii Chile, and in Crete the con- 

T ditions of Moslems and Christians are anything but quiet. 

» The spirit of apprehension and preparation covers and encircles 

^ the globe. And if these great powers, by design or complication, 

• » shall be drawn into active hostile engagements, with the modern 

,^ improved destructive implements of warfare, no man can foretell 

'^ the ond, the result, or the consequences. 

"War is our business, but to \rhom is given 
To die or triuinpli? That determiue, Heaven. 

The face of the whole civilized world may be changed. 

All our accumulated and inherited wealth of letters, learning, 
history, science, ingenuity, genius, invention, discovery, progress, 
civilization, and light here and to the eternal shores may be lost 
or relegated to a dark age for centuries. Who can foresee, who 
can foretell? Or the very preparation and appearance of war may 
solve the great jiroblems of the age, b)" emancipating nations and 
men from dependence upon and servitude to the sordid metals 
and making them more reliant upon their own credit and re- 
sources, relegating this relic of barbarism to the realm of com- 
modities, and establishing an equitable basis of distribution for 
all human national and international transactions, and ushering in 
the twentieth century with the United States of the World formu- 
lated upon that sound and solemn and sacred compact which will 
be approved on earth and ratified in heaven? 

"Nation shall lift no sword against nation. Neither shall they 
learn war any more." 

When learning and art, and especially religion, shall weave ties 
that shall make war fratricide. 

Mr. Chairman, under these conditions it may be statesmanship, 
consummate diplomacy, and wise patriotism and prophetic caution 
to prepare for the seeming conflict, with the reserved, patriotic, and 
Christian hope that the very preparation may avert war and com- 
mand peace. Prepare wisely, abundantly, with deliberation for 
defense, j'ea for aggression, when involving suffering humanity on 
this continent or kindling the torches of liberty in Cuba, until her 
shores shall be a continuous circle of light, creating that beautiful 
circlet in the Soiith Atlantic, that shall increase in size as it broad- 
ens, until it bears in the music of its waves this joyous news to 
every shore of civilization. 

War, grim-visaged and destructive, is a relic of barbarism, and 
should be avoided, if possible, in the interest of Christian peace 
and civilization and their benign blessings. The brave, honora- 
ble Americans and the valuable sinews that we would have to 
employ and sacrifice in destructive war we need to husband and 
employ in fighting the battles of peace, whose victories are as re- 
nowned as those of war. 

We need employ them to bring more comforts to American 
homes, in enlightening the minds. Christianizing the hearts, and 
bettering the condition of American masses. We need employ 
them in still further developing and enriching our already mar- 
velously great coimtry, in extending our commerce on land and 
sea, in constructing our great inland waterways, in building the 
Nicaragua Canal, connecting us with the Orient, and other great 
projects made possible by American genius and enterprise. Desir- 
able as all of these may be and are, yet, if need be, we would make 
one and all of them a willing sacrifice upon the altar of starving 
humanity and liberty. 
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^Ir. Chairman, it -would soem in this day of liicht and Christian 
reason that all international dilTorciices coi;Ul and sliould bo arbi-' 
trated. If our quarrel, so .just, as we know and feel it to be. was 
with any other nation in the world, we mi.i,dit induli,'e the hope 
for a peaceful settlement, j,'i vintj adequate actual indemnity for the 
3I(t i)i('. immediate an<l substantial relief to the starving Cubans and 
independence to Cuba upon just and honorable terms. But a his- 
tory of the rise and fall of Spain, with her invariable rpcord of 
cruelty, of persecution, of bigotry, of tyranny, of hostility to every 
sentiment of human freedom, common justice, and enlightenment, 
forbids us to indulge in the hope of this hajipy solution. The 
slaverj- to which Spain doomed its subjects in the Western Hemi- 
sphere was not more cruel than its oppression of the people of 
Holland or its tyranny over its own peojile at home. 

After all, it may be Divine design and retribiitive justice that 
has brought this proud, tyrannical, long-.sinning nation to judg- 
ment, to confront the Republic of liberty, e(iuality, justice, and 
civilization, where the wage, the issue, is the triumph of justice, 
truth, liberty, humanity. 

With the God of these attributes and the Father of nations to 
direct our councils in peace and our armies and navies in war, we 
should not, we do not, fear the result. 

Mr. Chairman, I am a great believer in retributive justice and 
providential intervention where the welfare of the human family 
is involved. 

I was born in a land cursed with a system of slavery, which 
was antagonistic to the spirit and letter of our Constitxition and 
institutions: and when we refused to surrender it peacefully, in 
my earl\' youth I witnessed it wiped away by an issue of fire and 
blood, and I have lived, although a personal sufferer, to thank 
God and to regard the result as a blessing in disguise, making our 
country stronger, richer, and more hopeful and liappier. 

I read that in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries oppressions 
fell upon and tyranny reigned over the people of Europe, and the 
oppressed fled from tyranny. They were providentially guided to 
a home and refuge then beyond the sunset. Their first work was 
to dedicate this country' to God and liberty. They felled the forest 
and builded the country. The earth responded to their labors 
and ihe ])opulation multiplied. 

But with the development of the country was also developed 
the sturdy spirit of independence, and when oppression came the 
spirit of 76 created the formal Declaration of Independence, to 
my mind and heart on the brightest day that ever beamed upon 
the moral world. This declaration and its emljlem cheered the 
half-clad and half-fed heroes at Valley Forge, waved over the re- 
doubts on Bunker Hill . floated from the masthead of the Bon Horn me 
Richard, kissed the breezes of victory on the waters of Erie and 
Champlain, and waved in triumph over the army of Wellington 
on the immortal field of Chippewa, and Cornwallis at Yorktown, 
tearing liberty's ensign from the British lion. 

We road in sacred history that when heavy oppression fell upon 
the children of Israel, when they were compelled '"to make brick 
without straw. ■ that a leader was raised up for them. They 
were given a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. 
The sea was caused to op -n and they pass as upmi dry land, and 
the waters to recede and destroy their ])ursuing oppressors. They 
were given a law of governmr'nt from amid the lightnings of 
Sinai. When they were hungry the heavens issued bread, and 
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when thirsty the roclis issued water. The same Providence, in 
his own time and way, cares for the starving Cubans. He has 
given tliis country to them as their promised land, and tliese peo- 
ple as their guardians, defenders, and protectors; and this has 
been brought about in a way that we would not shrink from the 
obligation and responsibility, if we could, and we could not, with 
respect, if we would. 

Mr. Chairman, in this solemn, serious, and anxious moment the 
American in the White House should, as he does, command our 
unqualified sympathy, confidence, and approval. Divided as we 
may be politically, raciallj^, or sectionally, at the water s edge we 
are one, and our unity is represented by that emblem; and our 
President and Commander-in-Chief — his policy shall be our policy, 
his settlement or action shall be ours also. 

He has carried wnth him to prayer, to church, to private and 
official relation in life the secrets and responsibilities of the crisis. 
He has demeaned himself with Christian patience, fortitude, and 
consummate statesmanship, so as to receive the approval of his peo- 
ple and the respect and admiration of the civilized world. We 
can trust him to develop his own policy; that policy we are sure 
will be a humane, liberty -loving, broad American policy, such aa 
all Christendom will applaud and approve. 



Post-Ofnce Appropriation Bill— Fast-Mail Subsidy. 



SPEECH 

OF 

HON. HARRY SKINNER, 

of north carolina, 
In the House of Eepeesentatives, 

Saturday, March 19, 1S9S. 

The House being in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, 
and having under consideration the bill (H. R. 9008) making appropriations 
for the service of the Post-Ohice Department for the fiscal year ending June 
30, 1899- 

Mr. BROMWELL. I yield five minutes to the gentleman from 
North Carolina ( Mr. Skinner] . 

Mr. SKINNER. I am tempted by this special privilege and the 
environments of the moment to address myself brietiy to the 
amendment and subject-matter under consideration. 

In entering my modest and humble protest against this im- 
called-for, unwarranted, and needless subsidy (I think I employ 
the right word, for in pure, simple, plain English it is nothing 
else) , I desire it understood that I harbor no i)rejudice or malice 
against railroad corporations. 

I realize that they have been and are great promoters of the 
progress which is characteristic of the age, and are the great in- 
struments that daily develop and imfold the wonderful and bound- 
less resources of our country. It is true that I entertain decided 
convictions upon the great transportation question. My convic- 
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tions are reflected and symbolized in Ihe Ocain, and St. Louis 
declarations, the Omaha and St. Louis platforms. 

Notwithstanding these, so long as the (jloverumcnt farms out 
transportation to corporations, 1 believe these corporations, 
whether it be the widow's mite, the laborer's savings, or the 
millionaire's investment, are one and all entitled to the protection 
of the law. to justice from the bench, from the jury box, and in 
legislative halls. They are entitled to be dealt with fairly and hon- 
orably in all things, and they should be required to deal honestly 
and fairly with the people and the Government. 

Mr, Chairman, railroads should charge the Government no 
more nor less than they would charge anyone else for the same 
matter, and there ought to be some practicable manner to adjust 
this matter. I think the entire subject of transporting the mails 
can be very materially simplified in the interest of the service 
and of economy by letting the Government own its own mail 
cars and paying the railroads trackage and fully empowering the 
Post-Office Department to fix schedules. 

In this way the mails can be transported north, south, east, and 
west upon such schedules as the Post-Office Department may fix, 
with such extra facilities as may be deemed advisable, without 
extra pay, without subsidies, and with a large net saving to the 
Department. This extra pay which goes to railroads and to the 
impractical project of free country delivery could be expended 
with very great profit and usefulness in experimenting in con- 
necting the post-offices together by telephones and telegraphs. 
This experiment, in my judgment, would result in attaching the 
telegraph and the telephone as a permanent fixture to the Post- 
Ofiflce Department of the Government. This is a progressive re- 
form in the postal service that should command the attention of 
the Post-OflFice and Post-Roads Committee. 

I am somewhat surprised that Bryan Chicago platform Demo- 
crats should support such a subsidy. Their platform, if it means 
anything, or if not builded simiily to get in on, stands against 
trusts, monopolies, and subsidies of all kinds, and yet Democrats 
professing allegiance to Bryan and this platform are here support- 
ing this subsidy, and thereby filling the coffers of Pierpont Mor- 
gan & Co. and strengthening the arms of these several corpora- 
tions receiving this benefit to fight and defeat your efforts in 1900. 

Mr. BLAND. I should like to know on what ground the gen- 
tleman bases that statement? 

Mr. SKINNER. I have only five minutes in which to discuss 
this question, and I am satisfied the gentleman from Missouri 
[Mr. Bland] will agree with me, for throughout his entire life 
ne has always stood for the right, and he is one that accepted the 
Chicago platform in good faith, and he will live up to it by voting 
against this subsidy. 

Mr. OGDEN. And he will do so in this case. 

Mr. SKINNER. Mr. Chairman, let us grant for the sake of the 
argument that this subsidy will expedite or facilitate Southern 
mails— all of which I deny— still I am at a loss to know how that 
class of Democrats who believe in ecjual rights to all and special 
privileges to none can vote for and champion this special privilege. 
"Consistency, thou art a jewel," 

Such action as supporting subsidies, when you politically declare 
against them, is what discredits Democracy in the estimation of 
the people, and leads them to give credence to the hustings charge 

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that they btiild platforms to get in on, and when in invariably 
break them. 

Mr. Chairman, from my own standpoint I conld excuse gentle- 
men who support this appropriation if they could show wherein 
it is of any service or of any value to the South. I love the South 
so well I would be tempted to vote for the appropriation myself 
if I could be convinced that it was of any benefit to the Southern 
people or to any community thereof. 

But the more I investigate the subject, the more light that is 
turned on, the clearer it appears to me to be an absolute bonus 
and gift, without any return benefits. Mr. James E. White, gen- 
eral railway superintendent, under date of February 4. 1898, says, 
in a letter addressed to the Hon. A. C. Shuford, "that the South- 
ern Railway, which is paid from this appropriation for extra fa- 
cilities, has not put on an extra train nor has it changed its sched- 
ule by reason of such appropriation. The train schedule of this 
line was practically the same before the appropriation was made 
as it has been since." 

I am informed that the Atlantic Coast Line is giving a better 
and quicker schedule to-day than it gave while it enjoyed this 
subsidy, and that the Seaboard system gives practically as good 
a schedule, and I believe that if this appropriation was to fail to- 
day the Southern Railway would maintain its present schedule. 
With the two competitors, the Atlantic Coast Line and the Sea- 
board, in the field, they would be compelled to do so from the 
high principle of self-ijreservation. 

This extra pay is all wrong and should be stopped. The Post- 
Office Department should have ample power to fix schedules for 
all trains carrying mail, and if any community stands in need of 
extra facilities they should make application to the Department 
to make schedules to accommodate them, and not come to Con- 
gress and ask for special and extra pay therefor. The South is en- 
titled to good mail facilities. So is the North, East, and West. 
The Govei'nment pays enough to secure them without extra pay; 
and any section that is not served satisfactorily, let them press 
the matter properly through the Department and not here. The 
Postmaster-General says that this extra allowance is irnnecessary 
and embarrassing to the service. W^e will do well to follow his 
advice. 

[Here the hammer fell.] 

jMr. OG-DEX. I should like to ask the gentleman a question. 

The CHAIRMAN (Mr. Pearson). The time of the gentleman 
has expired. 

Mr. OGDEN. Was the gentleman ever farther South than 
North Carolina? 

Mr. SKINNER, Oh, yes; I have been away down South. 

Mr. OGDEN. I do not think the gentleman can claim the priv- 
ilege of speaking for the South. 

Mr. SKINNER. I should like to have two minutes more. 

Mr. BROMWELL. I am afraid I can not give the gentleman 
further time without depriving other gentlemen of the time I 
have promised them. 

Mr. SKINNER. I wanted to develop a certain stateof facts 

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from North Carolina will 
have to vield the floor under the rule. 

Mr. SKINNER. Certainly I will yield. 

» ♦ » * * * « 

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Mr. SW ANSON. 1 yield the remainaer of my time to the gen- 
tleman from North Carolina [Mr. Pkakson]. 

Mr. PEARSON. Mr. Chairman, 1 should not have taxed tho 
patience of the House at this time but for the singular and erro- 
neous statement of the gentleman from Georgia [IMr. Fleming]. 
I desire to say that I have very high re.^pect for the gentleman 
from Georgia, because in almost all cases he votes right— that ia 
to say, against his party, the Democratic party. But he is mak- 
ing a singular error of fact in the quotation here from these sched- 
ules, and I wnll say that in point of fact and argument he has 
fortified and confirmed the position which we occupy. 

Let me say to the gentleman from Georgia, who lives in tho 
beautiful city of Augusta, that that city had the advantage before 
1^93 of this same form of expedition of mails, because the mail 
was carried to his city by the Atlantic Coast Line. Ho says they 
got their mails earlier then than now. or earlier by that line than 
this, and it was for the very reason that that appropriation went 
to the Atlantic Coast Line 'before 1898 and now goes to what i3 
called the Southern Railway. 

Mr. FLEMING. The gentleman is mistaken. My statement 
was that the Southern Railway itself takes fifty minutes longer to 
run from New York to Augusta than it did in 1893. 

Mr. PEARSON. The gentleman is usually very clearheaded, 
but he does not catch this point, that both he and his city are off 
the main line of the Southern Railway, and consequently off the 
main artery of transportation between New York and New 
Orleans. , . , 

Mr. FLEMING. The Southern Railway runs a car clear into 
the city of Augusta. .■,..., ,• 

]\Ir. PEARSON. And it is on the natural line of distribution 
of the Atlantic Coast Line. 

Mr. FLEMING. The Atlantic Coast Line does not touch there 

at all. . ^, . ,. ... 

Mr. PEARSON. The gentleman realizes that m this limited 

time one of us must have the floor and the other, at least if he 

will not listen, must yield the floor. Now, I desire to say this to my 

friends on this side of the aisle .-,■,. 

Mr. SKINNER. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield to 
me for a question? . 

Mr. PEARSON. I decline to yield to a man who favored this 
appropriation two years ago and now is opposing the same ap- 
propriation, 
lilr. SKINNER. I do not understand the gentleman. 
The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman declines to yield. 
j\Ir. SKINNER. Mr. Chairman- — 
The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman will take his seat. 
Mr. SKINNER. Yes; I do so. My purpose is always to be in 
order. 

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. 
Pearson] has the floor. 

Mr. SKINNER. Mr. Chairman, having taken my scat, at the 
same time 1 rise again, so I may understand the gentleman from 
North Carolina. A simple question may prevent a misunder- 
standing. 
The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman will take his seat. 
Mr. SKINNER. Mr. Chairman, I take my seat, and yet I would 
like the privilege of asking the gentleman a question. 
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LibKHKY OH CUNUKbbb 



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The CHAIR]MAN. The gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. 
Skinner] is ont of order. 

Mr. SKINNER. Mr. Chairman. I rise to a point of order. 

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman will take his seat or the 
CI air will h:\ve to appeal to the Speaker of the House. 

Mr. SKINNER. 1 have taken my seat. I have no desire to 
\-iolate the rules of the House, and now I rise to a point of order. 

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman will state it. 

Mr. SKINNER. That is, whether I have not the right to ask 
the gentleman from North Carolina whether he will permit me 
to ask him a question? 

The CHAIRMAN. That is not a point of order. The gentle- 
man from North Carolina [Mr. Pearson] declines to be inter- 
rupted. The gentleman will take his .seat. 

Mr. PEARSON. I have already stated that I could not yield to 
a gentleman who seems to have changed his opinion without any 
apparent reason npon this same proposition, which has been here 
in one form or another for eighteen years, a proposition which 1 
understand has heretofore had the siipport of the gentleman. 

Mr. SKINNER. Now, Mr. Chairman, I appeal to the gentle- 
man. I know he does not intentionally desire to misrepresent me. 

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman will confine himself to the 
question. 

Mr. SKINNER. I hope the gentleman from North Carolina 
will allow me to make a statement. 

Mr. PEARSON. I will do the gentleman the justice to give him 
the balance of my time — all of it — if he wishes to dispute any state- 
ment of fact that I have made. 

Mr. SKINNER. I want to say that I have never supported this 
measure in spirit or letter, and have always opposed it as an 
absolute robbery of the Treasury and not in the interest of the 
South. 

Mr. PEARSON. If I have misstated the gentleman's position, 
I regret it, but I know the impression has generally prevailed that 
the gentleman had heretofore favored this same identical appro- 
priation. Certainly he has never antagonized it. 

Mr. SKINNER. I opposed it, Mr. Chairman, when the Atlan- 
tic Coast Line had it. I oppose it now. The Atlantic Coast Line 
gives the same or a better service to the country to-day than it 
gave when it had the subsidy, and I want to say here and now 
that the Southern Railroad would give the same service to the 
people if it did not have it. The law of competition, the law of 
self-preservation, wo;xld prompt it to do so. [Applause on the 
Democratic side.] 

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